


First Burn Notes

by musicaltrash_24601



Series: First Burn [2]
Category: Les Misérables (2012), Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Schönberg/Boublil, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Canon Era, Character Analysis, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Javert is Eliza, Jean is Alexander, Kinda?, M/M, Madeleine Era, fic analysis, gay angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-14
Updated: 2018-12-14
Packaged: 2019-09-18 09:04:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16992084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/musicaltrash_24601/pseuds/musicaltrash_24601
Summary: The thoughts and thought process of the author as they wrote First Burn.





	First Burn Notes

**Author's Note:**

> None of the lyrics or characters belong to me.
> 
> Lyrics belong to Lin-Manuel Miranda
> 
> Characters belong to Victor Hugo

The reason I wrote this was because, when I heard this song by Lin-Manuel Miranda, I couldn’t help but think of the confrontation scene from Les Mis and I toyed with the idea of “What if Javert (J) and Valjean (VJ) were paralleled to Eliza and Alexander, with Fantine playing a sort of Maria Reynolds role? She obviously wouldn’t be frickle-fracking with VJ, but what if J’s sense of duty as an officer of the law interfered with his love for VJ? He forgives him in the end, obviously, because I can’t write angst with a sad ending. I  _ have _ to make it happy because I love my boys. So, without further ado, let us begin the deep analysis of my  _ First Burn _ song fic lol

 

_ I saved every letter you wrote me _

_ From the moment I saw you _

_ I knew you were mine _

_ You said you were mine _

_ I thought you were mine _

 

As we begin, the subject of letters immediately was something for me to think about. Where would J have gotten these letters? Were they  _ just _ letters? The reason I asked the second question was because I have this little headcanon that VJ is an artist because he worked so much with plants before his time in Toulon (reference: The Brick™), so he would have drawn the plants he saw. And as VJ progressed from Faverolles to Toulon to Montreuil, he went from drawing plants to drawing people to drawing Javert. So those drawings were very personal to both J and VJ. 

 

For the second through the fifth line, I thought about the scene in the 2012 version of Les Mis where J (Crowe) is looking through the door to see VJ (Jackman) and the following scene when Crowe’s J receives the rosary. 

 

_ Do you know what Angelica said _

_ When I told her what you'd done? _

_ She said _

_ "You have married an Icarus _

_ He has flown too close to the sun" _

 

"Do you know what Angelica said..." has to be changed because there is no Angelica. Javert, in a sense, is Angelica to himself. He's reprimanding himself. His mind- his sense of duty- is at war with his heart- his love for Valjean. I also personally think that this is referenced throughout the musical.

_ Don't take another step in my direction _

_ I can't be trusted around you _

_ Don't think you can talk your way _

_ Into my arms, into my arms _

 

I have always thought of VJ as an unconscious womanizer, as in he makes ladies swoon and sigh, but he doesn’t really know it. This image was only strengthened by my visualization of VJ as Alexander because Hamilton was known to be a womanizer. So this is why J is so wary of that in that verse.

 

_ I'm burning the letters you wrote me _

_ You can stand over there if you want _

_ I don't know who you are _

_ I have so much to learn _

 

So, J is obviously burning the letters by now. I think that during this scene, I wanted VJ to be near J but J wanted him to be farther away so we compromised and put the man in the by the bed of Fantine. I’m also referencing the fact that J had  _ absolutely no fucking idea that Madeleine was VJ _ so I used that for the last two lines because that was interesting as fuck to me.

 

_ I'm re-reading your letters _

_ And watching them burn  _

_ I'm watching them burn _

 

More burning, duh.

 

_ You published the letters she wrote to you _

_ You told the whole world _

_ How you brought this girl into our bed _

_ In clearing your name, you have ruined our lives _

 

So clearly, Fantine never wrote any letters. She did communicate with VJ, both in the Brick™ and in the musical. I hate forcing her into a Maria Reynolds position, especially since I feel like both women would feel a sense of comradery towards each other. They both were victims in their situations and what situations they were in both ended poorly for them. SO, to sum up, I hated this role for Fantine, but J’s misunderstanding of the situation plays a big factor here. He doesn’t know that Fantine’s letters to VJ are completely platonic. 

 

_ Heaven forbid someone whisper _

_ "He's part of some scheme" _

_ Your enemy whispers _

_ So you have to scream _

_ I know about whispers _

_ I see how you look at my sister _

 

The first part is a dead-on reference to the trail in Arras that Valjean revealed himself. It’s not explicitly stated in this fic, but I think if the readers really think, then they’ll see the parallels. Hamilton “screamed” about his affair. VJ “screamed” about his true identity. I wish I could have put a reference in there, but it’s too late to change it now.

"I see how you look at my sister" is also changed because, obviously, Javert has no sister. This lyric was difficult to change, especially in the Les Mis canon- both the Brick and the musical. I know it's a romantic connotation, but I couldn't help but think of Valjean up and abandoning Montreuil- and Javert- for Cosette. He's going after her and leaving Javert alone. That's where I got inspiration for this.

 

_ Don't _

_ I'm not naive _

_ I have seen women around you _

_ Don't _

_ Think I don't see _

_ How they fall for your charms _

_ All your charms _

 

Again, I’m definitely drawing on more Hamilton vibes here, but I firmly believe that VJ was a hardcore unconscious womanizer. And J’s “naivety” comes from the fact that he was fuckin smitten, head over heels, in too deep. He fucking loved Madeleine, and he allowed that to obstruct his instincts or his suspicions of Madeleine being VJ.

 

_ I'm erasing myself from the narrative _

_ Let future historians wonder how Eliza reacted _

_ When you broke her heart _

_ You have thrown it all away _

_ Stand back, watch it burn _

_ Just watch it all burn _

 

After VJ kinda breaks J’s heart, he disappears from the Brick™. Not the musical, because he sings “Stars” and we continue on. But I liked that parallel to Eliza because when I read the book I was like “What the heck where did my son go” and I felt like J and Eliza just had a lot in common. Also, Eliza wears blue (just like J), Hamilton wears green (just like VJ) and Maria wears red (just like Fantine). Haha, isn’t that weird?

 

_ And when the time comes _

_ Explain to the children _

_ The pain and embarrassment _

_ You put their mother through _

 

So, J is obviously not a mother, so I imagined this as Valjean being forced to tell Cosette what happened after the fact. This is set in the Madeleine era, but near the end (like after the barricade and when Valjean is ready for death), Javert has come back to Valjean as a ghost. He's like, ready to welcome him to the afterlife but the next lyric:

 

_ When will you learn _

_ That they are your legacy? _

_ We are your legacy _

 

I put the happy ending here because I’m actually incapable of writing angst (@a.rchangels on Insta will tell you otherwise). So, J finally forgives VJ and Fantine, so they all live happily ever after.

 

_ If you thought you were mine, _

 

**_Don’t_ ** _. _

HAHA PSYCH!! This flashes us back to the Madeleine era to the confrontation. That's what I based this song off of. It's set just after "Fantine's Death"- so J and VJ are around a dead Fantine- but before VJ runs off to save Cosette.

**Author's Note:**

> Link to the original First Burn: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1d6g17AG86acgLaiLBS858D7nyjXYFPzPewN__EroUSg/edit?usp=sharing
> 
> Link to the original notes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rsG4ZZB0I3WBzt8GUi-kTguoZXd9alX3O-spupda1p4/edit?usp=sharing


End file.
